Mondrian Art Animals & Other Drawing Ideas

How to Draw Mondrian Animals

This was an art lesson I used to do with my younger students. But I’ve since realized that making Mondrian animal art is fun for adults as well. The process is pretty much the same for any age, but the final drawing will be slightly different.

What we are going to be doing today is to make some animal shapes on our paper, and then fill them with blocks of primary colors that are in the style of Piet Mondrian.

I wanted to try making these on Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) to see how they turned out. And I was happy with the results. There are a ton of different designs you could make with these. And each Mondrian animal will be different.

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About Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian was a Dutch painter in the early 20th century who created abstract works.

His early works moved toward pointillism and cubism. During this time he was highly influenced by Pablo Picasso and Paul Cezanne.

It wasn’t until the later part of his life that he began creating the paintings we typically see today. These are the works that focus on a balanced composition, and the use of primary colors.

You can learn more about the artist at piet-mondrian.org.

Step by Step Mondrian Art Animals

Step 1 – Animal Outlines

The first thing we need to do is get the shape of our animal on the paper. This can be done by lightly sketching your animal onto your paper. Or, you can create a template.

I drew my animal on a separate piece of paper, and then cut it out to use as a stencil. This will help keep the finished drawing cleaner by avoiding extra pencil lines.

Then use a thin black marker or pen to outline your animal shape.

You’ll probably want your outline to be a little on the thicker side. But that’s a personal preference. When working on your artwork you want to keep in mind that these seemingly small details can make a big difference in how your final work of art looks.

Step 2- Add Lines

The next step is to add some horizontal and vertical lines. Make your lines so they are unevenly spaced apart. What you don’t want is something that looks like a checkerboard pattern. It’s already starting to be recognizable as a Mondrian art animal.

Or maybe you do… I’ve never tried it. It might look kinda cool. But I don’t think it would look like a Mondrian animal.

Try to keep your lines as straight as possible. But also don’t stress out about them too much if they’re off a little bit. Creating art should feel fun and relaxing.

When drawing your lines you can make some of them thicker than the rest. This will make your overall drawing look more interesting.

Tips:

Draw one line at a time
Vary the distance between line
Don’t draw too many lines going all the way across, or all the way down, your animal.

You can leave some of the areas a little larger. Or you can make them all smaller. Do whatever feels right to you.

The biggest reason I like using ATCs for my drawings is because they give me the freedom to try new things. Since each card only takes around thirty minutes to finish, I can do several of them without investing too much time.

Step 3 – Primary Colors

Piet Mondrian used primary colors for his paintings. Along with black and white. So for this reason, that’s what we’ll be using today for our Mondrian art animals.

The primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. You can learn all about this and more in our post on Color Theory for Artists.

Fill in as many of the boxes as you want. If you look at some of Piet Mondrian’s paintings, some have a lot filled in and some have a lot of white. You can make yours however you like.

Mondrian-Inspired-Animals-Primary-Colors-Bunny

Also, you can choose to fill in adjacent boxes with the same color, or not. Either way is fine.

You can add a face to your Mondrian animal or or leave it without the face. I think it looks good either way.